Latintos stands for "language transformations in texts and open sources." The LATINTOS BLOG highlights different spellings and different meanings of words, phrases and abbreviations as well as their origin. Latintos compares words in different contexts and different languages including scientific and formal languages. Further, name construction is analyzed and applications of systematic names and nomenclature systems are monitored.

Friday, April 3, 2015

Here is a brief overview—hyperlinks included—of those color books by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) that have accessible online versions [1-3]:

The interactive Gold Book at goldbook.iupac.org, and the PDF version Compendium of Chemical Terminology at goldbook.iupac.org/PDF/goldbook.pdf. It is not named for the color or chemical element gold, but to honor the chemist Victor Gold (1922-1985), who initiated its first edition [4,5].

Organizationally, the color codegold (in memory of Victor Gold) stands for the combined glossary. As you may have realized by reading the compendium titles, the other colors refer to sub-disciplines or branches of chemistry: green for physical, blue for organic, purple for macromolecular, orange for analytical, red for inorganic, “white” for “biochemical” and silver for clinical [6].

Mark Borkum and Jeremy Frey argue the case for Web-based, machine-accessible representations of these and other IUPAC publications to make them available for reuse by software developers [1]. Further, they urge IUPAC to take immediate measures in promoting a “cohesive vision of chemical terminology, nomenclature and ontology on the Web” by acknowledging and visionarily involving interdisciplinary chemists and software engineers:

There are many fine examples of “chemist-ware” on the Web, but their developers represent an absolutely tiny fraction of the world's chemists, who are presently unable to fully express themselves.